Journalist. Politics nerd. Racing punter. Bad golfer.
898 followers 2,108 following 412 posts
view profile on Bluesky 
Nadine Dorries is the latest Tory to defect to Reform. She joins the former Tory Wales Secretary, former Tory chairman, and former Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns. Reform UK has four councillors in Southend. All elected as Tories. Tell me again how Reform is a break with old politics.
'Parts of Britain’s political debate, if you can use that word any longer, are now routinely infused with a hysterical dystopianism, of which the DM front page or the casual use this week by the Telegraph of the phrase “Starmer’s Stasi” are classic examples.' www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
She’s going completely batty
I think this applies to Farage.
Opinion: The past decade was a masterclass in how to misread a nation. If Sir Keir Starmer doesn’t want to gift Britain to Reform, he needs to prove fast that he can be tough and effective on immigration on.ft.com/47dejup
Being lied to is comforting
That’s why he floated the idea of bringing in people from outside like Trump has. He knows fine the shambles it would be and could try to run a mile if it’s going to become real
He wants the next election to be a referendum on the ECHR (as Cummings previously suggested) - the Govt has 4 years to drum into people the protections they’ll lose and what’s at stake. They have to start this straight away.
I have said time and again, Farage is both illiberal and anti-liberal. Regardless of what he claims, this Bill would effectively remove our protection for freedom of expression and would allow the state to target individuals who speak out against it. It is manifestly autocratic.
In Farage’s UK, you will be free until he says you aren’t. Does that remind you of anyone?
Saint Lucy is free! Can you not just be happy and rejoice for a few days?!?
So depressing seeing Zia Yusuf on telly being given such free rein to spout Reform's fantasy solutions without proper pushback
Current Govt needs to be strengthening our institutions now
Universities & research institutions also need think how they would survive in Farage’s post-truth world www.theguardian.com/media/2025/a...
Historians will look back in 100yrs time completely stunned we let social media run wild because the billionaire owners convinced people “free speech” comes with no responsibilities. Failure to regulate it at the outset will turn out to be one of society’s greatest failures.
"They are just a few lunatics online, Helene, you cannot take that seriously.“ I think one fundamental mistake moderates of all political persuasions have made over the last two decades is to underestimate the power of the internet. And here we are.
Jesus Christ. It’s like we’re heading back to the 1970s but with social media to help the racists www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
Where have all these Starmer/Labour supporters suddenly appeared from I wonder?🤔 www.politicshome.com/news/article...
The country is BROKEN!!!! NO of course we can’t pay to fix it!!!
Well.
Europeans and Russians kicking the ball off the fairway and into the bunker while pretending to not notice Trump’s caddy doing the opposite. Expect this to be on South Park soon 😂
Peace summit at Turnberry followed by a Ryder Cup-style competition between leaders at his Aberdeen course? Which his team wins, of course.
Look at Macron’s 4 feet….
For as cringeworthy as it is watching leaders fluff Trump, at least it works. When Vance or another one of the lunatics are in office, trips to Windsor Castle or a bout of arse-kissing won’t have any effect. Terrifying
😂😂😂 They’ve definitely not gone absolutely cuckoo
The point of Farage hasn’t been to actually get into power, it’s to bend those who are to become what his backers want. Remember the faces of Gove, Johnson etc when they realised the magnitude of winning Brexit? This would be 10000x more shocking and serious to the chancers involved
All the stuff about bringing in business people to run Govt departments like they do in America is another sign. It’s either him knowing how completely dysfunctional it would be, or setting up a way to say “you don’t think I’d let THESE idiots be in charge” during a campaign…
This is a very interesting point. Jenrick’s antics may get him plenty of praise among the online-addled but is perilous electorally
Robert Jenrick joining a protest against hotels being used to house asylum seekers, as if he wasn't a home office minister during the period that use of hotels was ramped up, feels like a pretty bad mark of our ability to hold politicians to a minimum standard of reality / shame.
It’s significant he’s exploring Lords appointments. His ego might overtake him but I feel the level of responsibility and accountability would terrify him.
The reason Trump got his ass handed to him on Friday is bc ALL Trump's power is built on Russian disinfo--"RussiaRussiaRussia." And Putin just made it clear he can destroy that with glee. www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3hT...
Really is quite mad they think leaning into this stuff can be anything other than utterly disastrous for them. Surely the only way back for the Tories was self-reflection for a long while then being the sane(ish) version of the right in a contrast to Reform?
Jenrick has overshot Reform and ended up at the National Front. Under a leader less pathetic than Badenoch this would be a sacking offence
I think Farage knows fine he’s not remotely suited to being PM. He wants to be making money on the right wing speaking circuit in America, not getting hassled with all the shit the top job comes with. How he wriggles out of it will be fascinating.
Long ago
Why the recent moral panic over shoplifting while the rightwing media says nothing about billionaire tax evasion?
His body language said otherwise
It is a war - and the side dealing in facts is losing
There is all sorts of bs floating around that is totally untrue and I obviously won’t repeat. We are losing the information war big time. Why? Basically because the government is either powerless or unwilling to protect us from the spread of disinformation. Needs to act.
I think Labour’s problem is that, as power has shifted to technocrats over recent decades, its ambitions have shrunk to chasing populist policies shaped by an algorithmically skewed version of public opinion, one amplified by rage-bait rather than grounded in reality.
Radicalised Bob is weeks away from storming the Woking Pizza Hut demanding to see their cellar
Yip! A charlatan
Yip. Like everyone else I assume, the effects of this radicalisation is becoming more and more visible. Democracy just doesn’t work when lying is consequence-free and gets rewarded.
Just heard Philp on the radio claiming Rwanda would be the solution to every problem going. Not a single bit of pushback on the tiny numbers involved. Just allowed to waffle on and on about it like it was a serious policy. Everyone is going completely mad
“Spreading false information about foreigners and crime” Same playbook, different country www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
"Is Britain about to blow?" asks Matt Goodwin promoted a two hour special event on the subject. Their greasy desperation for violence and carnage, so they can profit off it, is so disgusting.
And of course if thugs were rioting about anything else they'd be calling for baton rounds and water cannons.
Vance is worse!!!
Properly regulate social media or democracy will wither. It’s this simple and time is running out fast
Self-radicalisation is what it is
They’d have been far better advised starting their new party 4 months from the next election rather than 4 years 😂
This is what happens when neoliberal meritocratic technocracy hollows out democracy and leaves social media to fill the vacuum with outrage, distortion, and division.
I just realised something reading the news this morning. Britain's average per capital income is now at 40 600 euros per year. Which means if they rejoin the E.U they would qualify for development funds. We'd be spending the next 10 years sending money to London to rebuild from the Brexit damage.
A grade-A lunatic
Reform mayor Andrea Jenkyns tells Times Radio that she doesn’t believe climate change exists, and that it’s just a “racket” for some people to make money. If Reform win the next election, the UK could become a very different place quite quickly.
Broadcasters really need to get rid of these preening four-pronged questions. Have they ever had a decent answer from one of them? Infuriating
This from @lewisgoodall.com is hugely important on so many levels www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdc6...
Whether you agree with him fully or just a little bit, this guy is precisely the kind of natural, engaging communicator needed to take on the likes of Farage etc.
This feels....notable. The leader of Reform-run Kent council and its cabinet member for social care have written to the government to complain that a crackdown on car workers visas intended to reduce net immigration could have a devastating impact on some care providers.
Farage - Parliament must be recalled for Trump. Blah blah, something about Macron, blah blah. Trump (12hrs later) - Recall parliament? No, don’t be doing that. How this is treated will be a fascinating case study in whether Farage will ever be treated like a normal politician. Or not…
This is also applies to Labour in the battle with Reform - got to up their game and rapidly modernise their messaging to the world we live in, not how they want it to be
I don't know that I'm in love with creating yet more social tribes - but that split in trust of judges is really telling. That's basically a left right split - progressive activists trust judges more than traditional conservatives! The R/W propaganda war on the judiciary has had an effect
Withdraw from the ECHR, give the executive direct control over the appointment of judges, job done. Trumpism comes to the UK. Parliamentary democracy ends. It would not even have to take six months. The only way to prevent it is to use your vote to stop the election of Tory and Reform MPs in 2029.
The deep state got to him...
The Torygraph, which has spent years working itself up into a frenzy of mad conspiracy theories in which the world is controlled by shady Islamo-leftists, would like you to know it’s you who’s unable to cope with alternative viewpoints
There’s something very amusing about watching people who thought they could harness conspiracy thinking see it spiral completely out of any control. Who could have guessed herding crackpots could be so difficult?
100% this
If the Small Boats trial agreement with France leads to a permanent scheme that reduces crossings, it will show cooperation with European neighbours works and ECHR withdrawal is a total red herring. That’s why the right will do all it can to blow the deal up. Its success would be their disaster.
I’m sure everyone has someone (probably many more) they know who has become batty due to overexposure to social media. Fascinating and terrifying to think of where this leads The fact Trump will fight any attempts to regulate social media shows there’s a long, long way to go in this.
Imagine reading the history of this period in 100yrs time. Because we are living through it in real time we are probably not fully appreciative of how completely insane some people and institutions have gone. Future students will struggle to believe it all actually happened this way.
The Telegraph today carries a news story about someone paying £7.4 million for a handbag (Hello, Lady Bracknell!). And an opinion piece describing a wealth tax as a ‘moral abomination’. What a time to be alive.
Sadly it’s seeping further and further into the ‘normal’ part of the population. Previously sane people being bombarded by wacky opinions online which appear widespread. And if THAT many people are thinking that way, there must be SOMETHING in it…. Everyone knows someone afflicted by it by now
Why is Robert Jenrick uncharacteristically quiet about the French deal? Because it was his idea. Our analysis www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Farage says "basically the Brits have rejoined the European Union" - a comment no doubt designed to stir up division & anger. And of course, he's complaining that immigration hasn't been properly dealt with but offers no solutions. news.sky.com/story/nigel-...
This is fascinating to watch. It's not that he's charismatic. It's that he's charismatic in a specifically social media way, on the social media equivalent of the Graham Norton Show. There's a proper lesson here - a highly superficial, but very effective comms lesson - which Labour will duly ignore.
Straight to Farage for a soundbite but zero scrutiny within 30 mins
Farage soundbite with no scrutiny of his proposed solutions aired on TV within 30 mins of Starmer and Macron finishing their press conference. This country really does want to finish itself off.
Hopefully they have a proper strategy to sell it to people and not let the usual suspects just drown everything out
Not like Peston to make a show of himself when a simple question would have been far more effective. Yawn
If only they were ripped to pieces like this every time they're on telly or radio
Ah, yes, Jake Berry, the Boris Johnson/Liz Truss acolyte who said “Can’t afford to eat? Just get a better paid job.” Further proof that it really is the dregs, rejects & castoffs of the Tory Party who switch to Reform in the forlorn hope of resuscitating their failed careers.
Caroline Lucas, "Hopefully people won't forget what Nigel Farage has done with Brexit" "He is extraordinary in how he manages to be the Houdini of politics, extricating himself from all these disasters he is causing in the country" "Farage is exploiting grievances"
“We Tories broke the country, everything is rubbish - so give us another crack at it” is an interesting road to be heading down
The right-wing propaganda machine —networks of think tanks, advocacy groups, and media outlets—has worked to divorce right-leaning Americans from reality and instill in them a sense of victimhood and resentment. This unreality serves as justification for state violence against their opposition.
Definitely not a cult
Starting to think these folks aren’t the “free thinkers” they think they are
www.newstatesman.com/politics/202...
Remarkable that in 2025, after everything that’s happened over the last 50 years, we’re still doing the ‘lower taxes, hate investment’ stuff. Insane
“Brexit has shattered confidence in Britain’s economy” And yet the politicians who championed Brexit still strut around like they’re owed power, rather than a heavy dose of proper scrutiny and public disgust for the damage they’ve collectively done.
The only question in American politics right now is are you for or against authoritarianism? Nothing else matters.
Chances they will follow the law at the next election? When you’ve convinced yourself the other side cheated you before, anything goes.
How normalised is all this going to be when Trump is refusing to leave office in a few years time?
Do the troll farms next!
So depressing we have normalised lying to such an extent a politician simply saying something is news regardless of its veracity. Even just ten years ago Reform’s fantasy numbers would be under relentless focus. But, clicks…
Excellent www.thetimes.com/comment/colu...